Gift Giving, Bribery and Corruption: Ethical Management of Business Relationships in China
Gift Giving, Bribery and
Corruption: Ethical
Management of Business
Relationships in China
Gift giving is a prevalent social custom in China in all areas of life: in family and in significant relationships (guanxi), as well as in dealing with political authorities, social institutions and business people. For all that, from an ethical perspective, it is very difficult to know when it is proper to give or receive a gift, what sort of gift is appropriate, or what social obligations gift giving imposes (de Menthe, 1990).
Anyone who has lived in a foreign culture knows how difficult it is to successfully adapt to the local way of doing things. One can spend many months learning how to behave, only to find it all too easy to still commit tremendous faux pas. For foreigners, the cultural logic and social practices of gift giving present one of the most difficult lessons in learning how to “do business right” in China. Not surprisingly, many
Westerners unfamiliar with Chinese culture often make the easy identification of gifts with bribes and allege that the Chinese are promiscuously corrupt in their business practices ( Economist,
1995a, 1995b). Such an easy identification is, however, incorrect. The Chinese themselves are well aware of the differences. There is hardly an issue that has so preoccupied the Chinese media and incited debate over the past years as bribery and corruption (Levy, 1995). Within Chinese culture itself, there are, indeed, moral parameters to distinguish morally proper gift giving from bribery and corruption.
In this paper I assess the cultural and moral differences between gift giving, bribery and corruption and set forth guidelines for managing business relations in China. I begin with a cultural framework of analysis and then proceed
Journal of Business Ethics 20: 121–132, 1999.
© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
P. Steidlmeier
to analyze transactions based upon
Corruption: Ethical
Management of Business
Relationships in China
Gift giving is a prevalent social custom in China in all areas of life: in family and in significant relationships (guanxi), as well as in dealing with political authorities, social institutions and business people. For all that, from an ethical perspective, it is very difficult to know when it is proper to give or receive a gift, what sort of gift is appropriate, or what social obligations gift giving imposes (de Menthe, 1990).
Anyone who has lived in a foreign culture knows how difficult it is to successfully adapt to the local way of doing things. One can spend many months learning how to behave, only to find it all too easy to still commit tremendous faux pas. For foreigners, the cultural logic and social practices of gift giving present one of the most difficult lessons in learning how to “do business right” in China. Not surprisingly, many
Westerners unfamiliar with Chinese culture often make the easy identification of gifts with bribes and allege that the Chinese are promiscuously corrupt in their business practices ( Economist,
1995a, 1995b). Such an easy identification is, however, incorrect. The Chinese themselves are well aware of the differences. There is hardly an issue that has so preoccupied the Chinese media and incited debate over the past years as bribery and corruption (Levy, 1995). Within Chinese culture itself, there are, indeed, moral parameters to distinguish morally proper gift giving from bribery and corruption.
In this paper I assess the cultural and moral differences between gift giving, bribery and corruption and set forth guidelines for managing business relations in China. I begin with a cultural framework of analysis and then proceed
Journal of Business Ethics 20: 121–132, 1999.
© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
P. Steidlmeier
to analyze transactions based upon
References: Brauchli, Marcus W., 1993b, ‘Great Wall: As The Rich in China Grow Richer, the Poor are Economist, 1995a, ‘Business Ethics: Hard Graft in Asia’ (May 27), 61. Economist, 1994, ‘The Trouble With Caesar’s Wife’ (January 29), 37. Economist, 1995b, ‘The Politics of Corruption’ (May 20), 33.